Drifter Undergoes "Training"

Underneath the territory of the Dragon God Mirelia Alta, within the vast space in the underground hundreds of feet below the surface, a series of unpleasant thuds echoed without a pause. A figure bent in an almost letter "C" shape flew at high speed as it crashed on the solid ground, disturbing the dust that had remained undisturbed for countless of years. Not a second later, a bloody silhouette emerged out of the clouds of dirt, crawling on all fours pitifully like an animal.

"Gahak!"

Crimson liquid, high in viscosity, splattered on the ground and made a mess. Along with it came chunks of flesh, presumably parts of human organs that have been damaged by the ruthless strike that had sent the figure flying. With a wry smile on his face, the aforementioned person, with blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth, stared right at the scaled creature in front of him and complained.

"Master… Isn't this training session of yours too extreme? I'm going to die… you know…?"

"Aren't you still fine? I know that you already know that this monarch will not let you die, so stop complaining. Really… what a wuss of a servant that I have picked up." Mirelia snorted in disdain. "Heal and Recovery."

A circle with complicated symbols and geometric patterns emerged beneath his body, lighting his figure up along with his surroundings. Soon, when the light abated, the grievous wounds that he had suffered vanished like they were never there in the first place. The only indication of the events prior were the rips in his school uniform that did not resemble one any longer.

"Even if I don't die, it will still hurt!"

"Not my problem." The Dragon God narrowed its eyes. "Deal with it on your own."

"Sniff. How cruel."

From the view of a third party, it was a bizarre scene of a dragon toying with its prey. It looked as though the giant creature was only letting the weak human it had caught live in order to satisfy its sadistic urge before it ate. To the Dragon God, however, it was merely a training session that it had specifically crafted for its servant.

After stretching for a bit, giving his body a once over, Yuki stood up without any signs of injuries. True to Mirelia's intentions, his muscles seemed more robust than before, giving him relief that the pain he had to endure was not all for naught. Thank goodness or he would have gone crazy!

"Alright. Stop dallying and circulate your mana once more."

"Hah… Master, can't I rest?"

"Are you tired?"

Yuki was stumped. In actuality, tired was the last thing that he was. With the Dragon God's healing spell, even his stamina was restored, bringing him back to his peak form. He was exhausted mentally, though, but Mirelia seemed keen on continuing. Really, the Dragon God knew no moderation.

Shaking his head, he tossed all the unnecessary thoughts out of his mind and activated the mana inside his body. His blood churned all of a sudden, changing his relaxed impression to one that radiated strength. What he did at that moment was Body Strengthening.

It was a technique wherein the user circulates his mana throughout his body, letting the magical energy seep inside his muscles, to bring the maximum potential of the flesh and release all the strength that the body could muster. This magical skill allowed one to transcend one's limits and break the limiters inside the person's body. However, in exchange, a heavy strain would be inflicted on the caster in proportion to the intensity of usage.

Upon learning how to control mana, albeit sloppy in proficiency, what Mirelia taught Yuki was not another elemental spell but just this one technique. It was not an understatement to say that the human was immensely disappointed for not being able to learn other cool spells and insisted on learning more, but the Dragon God would not budge about not teaching him other things aside from this one. And thus, a cycle of Yuki performing Body Strengthening magic in full throttle, getting beat up, and being healed repeated itself countless times over the course of a few days, only taking breaks to eat.

"Gak!"

After fighting for his life against the dragon's claws, Yuki once more found himself on the ground. He was really tempted to beg for mercy, but every single time, a magic circle would light up underneath his figure before he could do so.

"Master, how did you even think of this 'training'?"

Mirelia raised its gigantic head upwards, seemingly pleased with his questions. Mirth shone deep in its golden eyes as its voice sounded.

"Well, the best way to grow is to go beyond the limits, right?"

"Are you a shounen protagonist!? Plus, I think you just find it fun to beat me up."

"You grew stronger, though?"

Although it sounded absurd, such method was indeed quite effective. Yuki did not really want to acknowledge that this brutal torture was actually training, but the result truly spoke for itself as a testimony for its effectiveness. If he had to liken it to something, it worked similar to muscle training and weight lifting. It worked on a principle that something would only grow if it was driven into its maximum capacity regularly, quite similar to how muscles grew with repeated reps of lifting. The full throttle use of Body Strengthening magic broke down his muscle fibers while activating the spell consumed large amounts of his magic power continuously, putting Yuki's mana and fleshly body to their limits. And after enduring minutes of suffering, a spell would speed up his recovery and bring him back to peak condition with his strength and magical power raised to an even higher level. It was a luxury training cycle veiled as a brutal, one-sided torture.

"By the way, master, the magic that you've been using is quite different from the one I used with the flame thrower, right? Mine did not have a cool magic circle, after all."

"Sharp. What you used was Natural Magic while the one this monarch used was Theoretical Magic."

Yuki tilted his head in question.

"When you casted your flame thrower magic or whatever it is, you imagined it, right? You did not have to chant and just had to picture it for the spell to be cast. That is Natural Magic, not needing any complicated steps in order to manifest. On the other hand, Theoretical Magic makes use of calculations and magical theory to work. Precise calculations are needed to manifest a phenomenon which, of course, are done through a magic circle."

In addition, while Natural Magic was much easier to cast, it consumed large amounts of mana. It was also volatile and prone to failure, even exploding on occasions, due to its reliance over the user's capability to visualize an image. In comparison, Theoretical Magic posed higher difficulty when it came to casting, requiring immense mental power to process complicated calculations. However, its advantages lay on its stability due to the presence of a magic circle and low magic power cost with everything already accounted for during casting.

Taking all of that information in mind, Yuki sighed. Magic was more complicated than he had imagined. It would have been nice if he had a cheat like those fantasy protagonists in the books that he had read, making things much simpler for him. Unfortunately, the road towards strength that he had right now was only heading towards a one-sided beating.

"Enough rest. Let's start again!"

Yuki resigned himself for what was to come, knowing that he would not be able to escape the training session no matter what. Still, despite harboring aversion to pain, he did not dislike the process as much as he thought. His growth was apparent, after all. If he had to compare himself to his past self from a few days ago, a stark difference would immediately be spotted. His body was more robust, still lean but had the necessary muscles needed. And more importantly, the warm current inside his body already grew a few times compared to what he had the first time. If he had to cast the same flame thrower spell, he would not feel weak anymore for the next few minutes.

For the following days, the same scenery replayed in the underground. Mirelia looked at its servant in complete amusement while beating him up into a pulp and healing him before he could complain. It found it fun seeing the complicated expression on his face as though he did not know whether to feel annoyed or grateful.

When was the last time that it had enjoyed itself like this? The Dragon God could not remember. It shook its large head, pushing the complex sentiment that it had felt at the back of its mind. Returning its gaze to its servant, the dragon thought about something deeply.

"Hmm… I guess he can withstand a portion of it now."

The dragon raised its claws, prompting Yuki to halt his steps.

"Haa… Are we taking a break now?" his voice shook as fatigue accumulated in his mind.

Mirelia did not answer. Instead, the dragon took out a vial with golden liquid inside. And without waiting for Yuki to even ask a question, it made the glass container float with magic and shoved it right in his mouth forcefully. The poor human could only swallow whatever it was and lament his weakness.

"Gah!" he choked. "W-What was that?"

"It's blood."

"Blood of what? Wait! How can you feed me blood!?"

Well, it was not as though delicacies that made use of blood as an ingredient did not exist back on Earth. However, Yuki never really tried any of them, and even if he had the chance, he would not dare try at all. He was too particular with hygiene to have the guts to eat something like that. And while the blood did not look exactly normal, it was still blood.

"Stop being fussy. You don't even know how many people in the world would go to war just to obtain what you drank."

"Is it really that important?"

"Uh-huh." The Dragon God nodded. "So, be grateful to this monarch later for showering you with grace. Bloodline Bestowal!"

A magic circle appeared beneath his feet. It was much bigger than what he was familiar with, filled with numerous symbols that exuded power and geometric lines that drew complicated patterns. It lit up in crimson glow, like that of blood, before turning golden. Yuki was about to ask what the dragon was up to, but before he could do so, an immense amount of pain assaulted his senses.

"Ah!"

He groaned, unable to scream, as his body contracted on its own. Agony rushed throughout his figure as if it could not wait to rip his muscles apart. Hell. It felt like his soul was bathed in the hottest flames of the netherworld, slowly scorching his spirit until nothing was left. And as his suffering went on, he felt an overbearing aura take over his mind which reminded him of the time he stood in front of Mirelia for the first time.

Seeing the human that it took as a servant writhe on the ground, Mirelia simply closed its eyes. It knew that the training it had given Yuki was not sufficient enough to withstand what it had given him. However, the Dragon God chose to gamble. It chose to lay a bet on whether he could withstand it or not… whether he was worthy of it or not.